to old man
Dorset that day, demanding the ransom and dictating how it should be
paid.

"You know, Sam," says Bill, "I've stood by you without batting an eye in
earthquakes, fire, and flood--in poker games, dynamite outrages, police
raids, train robberies, and cyclones. I never lost my nerve yet till we
kidnaped that two-legged skyrocket of a kid. He's got me going. You
won't leave me long with him, will you, Sam?"

"I'll be back some time this afternoon," says I. "You must keep the boy
amused and quiet till I return. And now we'll write the letter to old
Dorset."

Bill and I got paper and pencil and worked on the letter while Red
Chief, with a blanket wrapped around him, strutted up and down, guarding
the mouth of the cave. Bill begged me tearfully to make the ransom
fifteen hundred dollars instead of two thousand. "I ain't attempting,"
says he, "to decry the celebrated moral aspect of parental affection,
but we're dealing with humans, and it ain't human for anybody to give up
two thousand dollars for that forty-pound chunk of freckled wildcat. I'm
willing to take a chance at fifteen hundred dollars. You can charge the
difference up to me."

So, to relieve Bill, I acceded, and we collaborated a letter that ran
this way:

"_Ebenezer Dorset, Esq._:

"We have your boy concealed in a place far from
Summit. It is useless for you or the most skillful
detectives to attempt to find him. Absolutely, the
only terms on which you can have him restored to
you are these: We demand fifteen hundred dollars
in large bills for his return; the money to be
left at midnight to-night at the same spot and in
the same box as your reply--as hereinafter
described. If you agree to these terms, send your
answer in writing by a solitary messenger to-night
at half-past eight o'clock. After crossing Owl
Creek, on the road to Poplar Cove, there are three
large trees about a hundred yards apart, close to
the fence of the wheat field on the right-hand
side. At the bottom of the fence-post, opposite
the third tree, will be found a small paste-board
box.

"The messenger will place the answer in this box
and return immediately to Summit.

"If you attempt any treachery or fail to comply
with our demand as stated, you will neve